Helpless
[Liverpool 0 – 1 Crystal Palace].
What can I possibly tell you that you don’t already know? What can anyone say?
Anyway… this is football.
Yes, the season isn’t technically over, but with City in their stride and the Gunners looking energetic and hungry, it certainly looks like it’s over for us. It’s not even the loss; this was one of a couple of games in the run-in where the Reds could, and should, have made up the gap in goal differential from Arsenal. Crystal Palace are not a good side, in context. They weren’t very good today, either, but unlike Liverpool, they came to play football.
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It was the Reds who looked hopeless, and not just in the end, either. It wasn’t one of those games when one team dominates but gets unlucky. No. Watching the horror show unfold, I felt that creeping doom of despair that tells you, in your gut, even at half time, that for whatever reason, your team just isn’t up to the task on a given day.
The thing is, as absolutely awful as everyone looked, with all the prior comebacks in the past 8 months, there was that damned hope. The hope that some fairy dust will be sprinkled in the dressing room at the half, and a reinvigorated squad would come back and nail the visitors to the mat. But as soon as the players came back on the pitch, you could see it; their gloom bubble had not been burst.
Not this time.
This team has been wildly outperforming this season. I certainly would have taken a top-4 finish and a domestic cup back in the summer. But after all the hard work to get here, with City more vulnerable than it has been in years, and even with a youthful, resurgent Arsenal, it just felt like this could, somehow, become a fairy-tale story. Life, unfortunately, doesn’t usually work that way, and the numbers eventually catch up with you.
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Yes, I’ve been avoiding talking about the game itself. Do you really want me to? Alright. Most everyone in the starting-11 was downright awful. Jones and Mo deserve a rating of 1 each, and I truly do not understand why Jones (at least) wasn’t taken off at the half. Bradley, Endo, Konate, and Van Dijk escape with a 2, but only because Allison – a solid 6, with another save of the season contender – made them look luckier than they should have been. Bradley looked particularly knackered. Diaz and Nunez get a 3, because they actually tried, even if their attempts were mistimed and misdirected. Macca gets a 5 because he was bang average, and Robbo the only outfield player with a 6, for being positive and the only one with any energy.
Klopp gets a big fat zero for the second game in a row. I know, I know, it’s not nice, but this, this is what a manager is for. These moments. This half time talk. These substitutions, or lack thereof. This lineup. This lack of energy and desire.
Maybe there is a historic comeback in the making. In theory, both the Premier League and the Europa League are still undecided. But to be honest, judging by this display, I’m just happy that we’re getting Champions’ League football next season.
Otherwise, I am – as I am sure you are as well – just sad.
